Disc drives are used for data storage in modern electronic products ranging from digital cameras to computers and network systems. Typically a disc drive includes a mechanical portion and an electronics portion in the form of a printed circuit board assembly that controls functions of the mechanical portion while providing a communication interface to a host being serviced by the disc drive.
Typically, the mechanical portion, or head-disc assembly, has a disc with a recording surface rotated at a constant speed by a spindle motor assembly and an actuator assembly positionably controlled by a closed loop servo system for use in accessing the stored data. The actuator assembly commonly supports a magnetoresistive read/write head that writes data to and reads data from the recording surface. Normally, the magnetoresistive read/write head uses an inductive element, or writer, to write data to and a magnetoresistive element, or reader, to read data from the recording surface.
The disc drive market continues to place pressure on the industry for disc drives with increased capacities, higher data rates and lower costs. A key aspect of achieving lower costs is an identification of marginal components as early as practical in the manufacturing process to preclude needless accrual of additional manufacturing costs and costly rework operations in subsequent processes. Additionally, an ability to identify, remove and replace marginal components from a disc drive prior to shipment is an aid in reduction of field failure and warranty expense.
A critical component of a disc drive is the magnetoresistive read/write head. As each read/write head passes through manufacturing processes in preparation for use in a disc drive, costs associated with those processes accrue and contribute to the overall cost of the disc drive. By measuring characteristics of the read/write head throughout the manufacturing process, defective and marginal read/write heads can be culled from the process before additional costs are needlessly applied.
Fly height of a read/write head is an important operating characteristic of the read/write head for proper operation of the disc drive. A read/write head with a fly height greater than a specified nominal fly height will typically display poor data transfer characteristics and is generally replaced. However, a read/write head with a fly height less than the specified nominal fly height will typically display good data transfer characteristics and, unless detected, is generally not replaced. An undetected low-fly head within a disc drive poses an increased risk to subsequent failure of the disc drive over the useful life of the disc drive.
As such, challenges remain and a need persists for effective techniques for determining a low-flying read/write head within a disc drive throughout the disc drive manufacturing process. It is to this and other features and advantages set forth herein that embodiments of the present invention are directed.